


Cornflower Amber

by Nintendraw



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, Maja is my HC'ed name for Caspar's youngest sister, sweet childhood fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 11:57:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21099083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nintendraw/pseuds/Nintendraw
Summary: “But nobody’s here, Cassie! And I like that name better than your real one.” The young girl smiled brightly, negating his question with ease. Only the mischievous glint in her robin-blue eyes, so much like Caspar's own, betrayed her display of girlish innocence, all bouncing heels and white-sleeved hands hidden demurely behind a bow-tied dress. “And besides, your present’s special! I wanted to give it to you alllll alone.”





	Cornflower Amber

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by the last paragraph of my answer to the Felix mun in my Tumblr RP group (https://hotheadhero.tumblr.com/post/188136480870), where I said one of the objects Caspar treasures most is a preserved cornflower amulet gifted to him by his littlest sibling on the farm. This is the story behind that.
> 
> Also, never call him Cassie to his face. Only one person gets that privilege, and it’s no one at the academy. XD
> 
> (For context, I HC that Caspar is one of Papa Bergliez’s nine children, Julian (18.1), Caspar (16.7), Wilhelm (15.2), Anastasia (Ana) (15.4), Mia (14.3), Lena (13.8), Jakob (13.12), Theodor (12.5), and Maja (11.10). Ages are given for the academy phase. The number(s) after the decimal point indicate birth month. Maja was born after Caspar left for Enbarr.)

“_Cassie!!_”

He started. _That voice—!_

He turned just in time to catch an excited Maja full in the chest with an _oomph_ that somehow miraculously didn’t send them both tumbling to the ground. Perhaps he had his training with the knights here to thank for that, but there were more important things on his mind now. He hadn’t seen his littlest sister in years; but look how much she’d grown! Only eight years old, and she was already starting to approach his height. But Caspar refused to let himself dwell on the miserable state of his late growth spurt; instead, he laughed brighter than he ever had since moving to Enbarr with his father and Julian, clapping his arms around her back and tousling her soft blue-snow hair. “Maja!” he exclaimed. “I haven’t seen you in years! When did you get so big? Last time, I could pretty much cradle you in one arm.”

(If she kept this up, soon he wasn’t going to be able to carry her anymore…)

“_Cas_sie!” She pouted, dragging his name out the way she always did when she was annoyed. “You’re one to talk; you’re no taller than me! Julie says you didn’t grow at all the last time I came.”

His hands stiffened around her for a moment, stilled, before half-fisting over his littlest sister’s clothes. “Julian said that? That brat; why can’t he pick on someone his own size…”

“L- Let’s not talk about Julie right now,” Maja amended hastily. If she let her brother keep going like this, there was no telling what else in Enbarr might be destroyed. As she pulled out of his hug, her eyes brightened. “I brought you a present, Cassie! You and Julie and Father too!”

He let her go reluctantly, expression thoughtful. “For all of us?” he asked. “Then why didn’t you call Father over, or at least Julian? And _when_ are you going to stop calling me that, Maja,” he sighed, exasperated. “If somebody overhears, they’re going to get the wrong idea…”

“But nobody’s here, Cassie! And I like that name better than your real one.” The girl smiled brightly, negating his question with ease. Only the mischievous glint in her robin-blue eyes betrayed her display of girlish innocence, all bouncing heels and white-sleeved hands hidden demurely behind a bow-tied dress. “And besides, your present’s special! I wanted to give it to you _alllll_ alone.”

“A secret present, huh?” _You’re lucky you’re so cute._ He feinted suddenly, attempting to glimpse what she had behind her back, but Maja deftly twisted out of the way with a laugh which he met with a pout worthy of the one the youngest Bergliez had just shot him. “Something that small, I doubt it’s anything that can help for training; and goddess forbid you bring me a _book_.” The word came out with more disdain than he may perhaps have intended. It wasn’t that Caspar had anything against books; it was just the ones he found in Enbarr were all so _dense_! And idea occurred to him, and his eyes widened. “Is it food, Maja?” he asked, stomach growling alongside the words. The boy made another grab at whatever it was Maja was hiding. “Come on; don’t hold out on me! I haven’t had homestyle cooking in ages—”

“Nope, and nope!” The girl wagged her finger at him as she bounced back, still with that mischievous grin. “If you wanna find out, Cassie, you gotta close your eyes…”

What could she possibly want to do? But Caspar readily closed his eyes as asked, holding himself as still as possible, mind burning with curiosity. He felt her little hands loop around to the back of his neck, trailing with them a strange cord which brushed lightly against his neck like soft woven twine. A necklace, perhaps? Carefully, he edged open an eyelid, but only made it far enough to glimpse sunlight before Maja gave a short yank to his vellus hairs, making him cry out in startled pain.

“No peeking!” she scolded. “Or I’m not giving this to you at all!”

“Okay, _okay_!” (Drat; he was found out.) He sighed internally; the move incidentally caused him to relax further into her arms. If she was going to deprive him of his vision, maybe he could figure out what it was by other means. Caspar focused his mind on his sternum. There was a teardrop-shaped thing sitting there, neither featherlight nor weighty, warm and smooth where it contacted his chest. But without reaching up to touch it (which would surely earn him another yank from Maja), he couldn’t tell what it might contain or what significance it might hold; and with her hands fidgeting there, he wouldn’t have gotten close besides.

At last, he felt her hands glide off his chest, heard the rustle of skirts as she straightened up and stepped back. When he opened his eyes, he found Maja standing there quizzically, right thumbpad wedged between her lips as her robin-blue gaze flicked critically between his new necklace and his eyes. A frown marred her brow; he wondered why.

“Maja? What’s wrong?”

If anything, the girl’s frown deepened at the sound of his voice. “Aw, I was so certain you’d like this when I found it,” she murmured dejectedly, almost as if thinking aloud rather than addressing him. “But now, I don’t know…”

He looked down, eyes tracing down the soft-twine necklace chain to the small amber teardrop nestled beneath his cravat, and to the flower inside. His eyes widened. Such a rich and vivid hue! And those petals… “Did this come from the farm, Maja?” he asked, picking up the amber droplet and turning it about in his hands. _From home? _Those petals reminded him so much of…

She nodded, still pensive. “Yeah. I was tilling the corn fields one day and just found it there, you know? It stood out so brightly there, just like you did the first time I came to Enbarr. But now that it’s on you, Cassie, I don’t think it matches your eyes very well after all …”

“That doesn’t matter, Maja.” A gentle smile spread across his face as the memories played in his head—memories of a simpler time, when all he had to worry about was cutting wheat, shucking corn, not falling over from the weight of the scythe, and remembering to call _‘Indech’_ to Julian’s _‘Macuil’_, lest he and everybody else lose him amid the golden fronds. (How many times had he hidden beneath those waving stems, weaving leaf-braids and flowers as he waited far too long for his siblings to find him? He always _had _been good at hide-and-seek. Perhaps _too_ good…) “It’s a little piece of home. You’d never see anything like this in Enbarr. And I’m still impressed sometimes by how many presents you bring me, Maja,” he mused aloud, his defocused, nostalgic gaze returning to the present time and her. “You weren’t even born yet when Julian and I moved here. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you didn’t ever think of me at all.”

The girl’s expression turned indignant. “Of course I’d think of you!” she scoffed. “What kind of sister forgets her own brother over something like that?!”

Caspar could think of a few times where it seemed Julian would prefer to forget he existed, but he didn’t need to tell her that. Instead, he swept Maja up in an abrupt hug, twirling her around too fast for her to even think of fighting him. “And that is why I love you so much,” he stated jovially. “Thanks, sis! I’ll treasure this always!”

She gasped in surprise as he swept her feet off the ground, too startled to even think of retaliating. “Really?” she asked when he finally put her down. “You really mean it?”

“Yeah!” Caspar was grinning from ear to ear as he ran back towards the capital library, tugging her along. “In fact, this reminds me of something I used to do back on the farm. Come on; let’s go prank Julian! This is going to be so much fun!” (By which, of course, he meant fun for him and Maja, not their lazy and uptight elder brother.)

His littlest sister laughed as she ran after him, skirts in hand as they sought out Julian. It wasn’t long before an outraged yell echoed out the archive doors, followed by a tittering laugh as the owner’s younger siblings fled. As Caspar ran, the cold iron-stone walls of Enbarr seemed to melt away into bright sun and rolling fields. One day when all his adventures and studies were done, he had to return, back to the bright plains of his youth…


End file.
